§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will describe facilities provided to him by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre, Swansea to enable his fraud officers to trace vehicle numbers of claimants; whether he has any figures for the number of such inquiries made by any of his fraud officers; and what controls he has established to ensure that such information is used only for legitimate purposes.
§ Mr. LeeThe Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre provide investigators from my Department with non-fee-paying tracing facilities. This enables us to identify the registered keepers of vehicles involved in suspected cases of benefit fraud.
The information requested on the number of inquiries made by my officials is not available centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate costs.
All investigative work undertaken by fraud offices is subject to management controls.